New scientific name??

[Big Mike]

I remember some talk about there being a new latin name for the corn snake. I can't find any related posts on this site or anywhere else. Does anyone know what it is and where it was published?

[Lizzy001]

never heard of a new name.....hmmmm

[BoidKeeper]

Maybe some one there can help.Corn Snakes.com (http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/)
Cheers,
Trevor

[Big Mike]

Thanks,
I found what I was looking for at http://www.cnah.org ... The Center for North American Herpetology.

Elaphe guttata Now Three Species
Frank T. Burbrink (2002 Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 25(3): 465-476), using mtDNA, showed that the taxon previously referred to as Elaphe guttata consists of three distinct evolutionary lineages (=species), E. guttata, E. emoryi, and a new species, Elaphe slowinskii. Go to the CNAH common names checklist on the home page and check out the images of all three taxa

also...


Pantherophis replaces Elaphe
Utiger, Helfenberger, Schatti, Schmidt, Ruf & Ziswiler (2002 Russian Journal of Herpetology 9(2): 105-124), using mtDNA, presented evidence that North American Rat Snakes of the genus Elaphe are a monophyletic lineage different from Old World members of the genus, and resurrected the available name Pantherophis Fitzinger for all North American (north of Mexico) taxa.
http://www.folium.ru/en/journals/rjh/contents/2002/2002-02.htm

[BoidKeeper]

Hey Big Mike this might interest you too. It's from Herp Digest.

5) New Species Of Snake Discovered In The U.S.
Press Release, 11/23/02, The Center for North American Herpetology
www.cnah.org
A new species of snake, Slowinski's Corn Snake, has been discovered in north-central Louisiana and eastern Texas by Dr. Frank T. Burbrink, a professor at the College of Staten Island-CUNY. The new species has been formally named Elaphe slowinskii, in memory of the late Dr. Joseph B. Slowinski, who was curator of herpetology at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, and a close friend and colleague of Dr. Burbrink's. Dr. Slowinski was bitten by a venomous Krait in Burma on September 11, 2001, and died the next day.
Published in a print version (Volume 25, Number 3) of the forthcoming December 1, 2002, issue of "Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution," the new species is most closely related to the Eastern Corn Snake (Elaphe guttata), found east of the Mississippi River in the southeastern U.S., and to the Great Plains Rat Snake (Elaphe emoryi), found on the Great Plains from Texas north to Utah and Nebraska.
An electronic color image by noted wildlife photographer Suzanne L. Collins of an adult Slowinski's Corn Snake from Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, can be viewed at
http://www.cnah.org/detail.asp?id=1235
Print media wishing a larger (and higher dpi) version of the same image for gratis use can email The Center for North American Herpetology at jcollins@ku.edu

[crimsonking]

North american Elaphe= pantherophis now. I believe.

[J_Riley]

Pantherophis has been proposed (has been before) but not fully accepted by the scientific community yet, as far as I know..

[J_Riley]

So my buddy dug up the cited Russian journal of herpetology mentioned above...

Russian Journal of Herpetology; Volume 9 No. 2 2002; Molecular Systematics and Phylogeny of Old and New World Ratsnakes; Utiger, Helfenberger et. alia

This was a DNA study that included most of what had been elaphe up until recently and also included the North American lampropeltines (which includes Lampropeltis, Pituophis, Arizona, North American Elaphe, Bogertophis, Rhinocheilus, Senticolis).
Some of the results that I found interesting were:

1) Senticolis is the most basal North American species of the group. I guess that would make it the closest species to the asian ratsnakes from which all the american lampropeltines are derived.

2) Pituophis is derived from the North American Elaphe (now called Pantherophis). Specifically they seem to be derived from the fox snakes.

3) The Bogertophis species (rosaliae and subocularis) are more closely related to flavirufa than to the rest of the ratsnakes. And flavirufa has been removed from the rest of the ratsnakes and given its own genus Pseudelaphe In fact both flavirufa and Bogertophis together are now placed closer to the kingsnakes (Lampropeltis) than to the rest of the North American Elaphe.

4) The mandarin ratsnake and the japanese forest ratsnake have been separated from the rest of the ratsnakes into their own genus (Euprepiophis).

5) The Elaphe genus has now been whittled down to just a few eurasian species: bimaculata, dione, quatorlineata, sauromates, climacophora, quadrivirgata, schrenckii (and only maybe anomala as a species), carinata and davidi.

6) The rest of the eurasian ratsnakes are divided into a few new genera: Oreophis has porphyaceus. Orthriophis contains hodgsonii, taeniurus, cantoris and mollendorffi. Zamenis is left with situla, persicus, longissimus, hohenackeri and lineatis. And it turns out the North American lampropeltines as a whole (ratsnakes, pine snakes, king snakes and the others listed above) are actually closer to the snakes left in the genus Elaphe than all the rest of these new genera.

Very interesting stuff.